Safety sling for workmen



Dec. 10, 1968 J. H. KINKADE 3,415,340

SAFETY SLING FOR WCRKMEN Filed June 9, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.JERALD H. KlNiKADE ATTORNEYS Dec. 10, 1968 J. H. KINKADE 3,415,340

SAFETY SLING FOR WORKMEN Filed June 9, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.JERALD H. KINKADE ATTOR N EYS United States Patent 3,415,340 SAFETYSLING FOR WORKMEN Jerald H. Kinkade, Cody, Wyo., assignor toManufacturing Patents Associates, a partnership Filed June 9, 1967, Ser.No. 645,050 6 Claims. (Cl. 182-7) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Arope-suspended sling, for workmen required to work on the outside ofbuildings or in other high places, gives secure support yet may bereadily shifted along the rope by the occupant of the sling to permit achange in work position, without danger of a fall.

Background of the invention Field.-The invention relates to slings forproviding safe support for workmen working at heights, where a fallcould result in serious injury.

Prior art.Safety slings of various types adapted to serve variouspurposes are known. The following patents are illustrative: Connolly,US. Patent No. 288,411; Stuart, US. Patent No. 1,300,040; Hoyt, US.Patent No. 2,254,179.

Summary of the invention The purpose of the invention is to provide asafety sling that will both comfortably support and adequately protect aworkman from falling should he slip while working at heights and yetwill afford freedom of movement from place to place in a work area witha minimum of inconvenience and work stoppage.

The invention permits precise control of the position of a slingrelative to a safety rope, is distinguished by its simplicity-nothingcan get out of order, allows the workman the use of both hands forworking and for handling the safety rope, employs the weight of theworkman to establish safety grip on the rope, and is easily operated bymerely shifting body weight or by convenient manual adjustment.

In the various forms of the invention, there is a body harness thatinculdes a seat portion adapted to engage the buttocks of the user. Thisharness is attached to a rigid mounting structure, which crosses thefront of the users body and carries a forwardly projecting pinch-lockmechanism adapted to receive a safety rope and to lock the sling atselected points along the length of such rope.

Description of the drawings In the accompanying drawings forming a partof this specification and illustrating presently preferred forms of thesafety sling:

FIG. 1 is a view of a sling provided with a suspender type of harnessand being worn ready for attachment to a safety rope, the body of thewearer being twisted somewhat so as to show the upper part inperspective and the lower part in elevation;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a similar sling provided with a belttype of harness;

FIG. 3 is a broken top plan view of the rigid mounting structure and thepinch-lock mechanism carried thereby, together with a portion of asafety rope which is locked by the pinch-lock mechanism;

FIG. 4 is a view like FIG. 3 but showing the rope released, that is,capable of linear movement because of a manipulation of the pinch-lockmechanism;

FIG. 5 is a detail sectional view on line 55 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a detail sectional view on line 6-6 of FIG.-4.

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Description of the preferred embodiments In FIG. 1 the sling is shownwith a suspender type of body harness. In FIG. 2 the same sling is shownwith a belt type of body harness. In both, the seat portion includes anupper webbing or strap 10 of some flexible material and a lower webbingor strap 11 of similar material. These are secured at their oppositeends to two relatively large metal rings 12 and 13, which form part of arigid mounting structure extending across the front and at the sides ofthe seat. While the straps 10 and 11 are shown looped around the rings12 and 13 and permanently secured by stitching, obviously the strapscould be secured to the rings in some other way, as by buckling topermit length adjustment to fit the users body and to enable removal andreplacement. It should be noted that the straps 10 and 11 areindependently slidable on the rings 12 and 13 to provide a sling-typeseat that will not ride up the back of the occupant of the seat.

A pair of suspender straps 14 and 15, which cross at the rear and aresewn together or otherwise united in usual manner, are each secured atone end to the upper seat strap 10, as by stitching. Attached toopposite ends of these suspender straps are respective straps 17 andbuckle extensions 17a thereof, which make length-adjustable and freelyslidable conections with the rings 12 and 13, respectively, so as topermit adjustments to accommodate persons of different heights.

Rings 12 and 13 are considerably narrowed at their forward ends, andplates 18 and 19 are welded or otherwise rigidly secured thereacross toreceive and preferably journal a horizontal bar 20 for oscillation onits longitudinal axis. This bar passes across the front of the usersbody and, together with the rings 12 and 13, provides a rigid structurefor mounting a pinch-lock mechanism 21 that serves to receive a safetyrope R.

As shown, pinch-lock mechanism 21 includes a U- frame 22, which isarticulatively attached to the middle of bar 20 and projects forwardlytherefrom, With its outer end closed by a transverse bar member 22a. Ifbar 20 is mounted in plates 18 and 19 to oscillate on its longitudinalaxis, as illustrated, U-frame 22 is advantageously pivotally attached tosuch bar, as by means of pivot pin 22b. If bar 20 is fixed with respectto such plates, the mounting of U-frame 22 thereon should be by means ofa universal joint permitting up and down as well as side to sidemovement.

U-frame 22 has both its arms slotted, as indicated at 23, and a spool 24is slidably mounted in the slots so as to be movable toward and from barmember 22a. Discs 25 are afiixed to the ends of the spool at the outsideof the U-frame. Thus, the spool is permanently held on the U-frame, butis freely rotatable and slidable therein.

A bail-type of latch 26 normally hangs freely from spool 24, as shown inFIG. 5.

Safety rope R is Wrapped around bar member 22a at the outer end of theU-frame and is partly wrapped around the spool 24. In rope-lockingposition, see FIGS. 3 and 5, spool 24 is thrust tightly against thatpart of the rope which is passed around bar member 22a of the U- frame.This occurs when the occupant of the sling exerts his weight against thesling seat. FIGS. 4 and 6 show the rope. released, to permit the user toshift his position. Release is effected when the workman in the slingstands with his weight off the sling seat. He can then grasp bail latch26 and pull it backwardly and upwardly to engage keeper notch 27 at theback of the U-frame to hold the spool in rope-releasing position. Thisallows use of both hands on the safety rope to increase or decrease itseffective length as found necessary for accommodating movement of theworkman from place to place within the work area.

.As shown in FIG. 2, the suspender straps of the body harness may bereplaced by a belt 28 having a buckle 29 and passed through a loop 30,which projects upwardly from upper seat strap 10, and through loops 31buckled to the upper runs 12a and 13a of the rings 12 and 13,respectively.

The described device provides complete security, yet permits quickadjustment of the position of the sling along the length of the safetyrope to allow the user to shift his position as required by the demandsof his work.

Whereas this invention is here described and illustrated with respect tocertain forms thereof, it is to be understood that many variations a-repossible without departing from the subject matter particularly pointedout in the following claims, which subject matter I regard as myinvention.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. A workers sling for use with a safety rope that is secured to a fixedsupport, comprising, in combination, a

body harness including a sling-type of seat; a rigid structure securedto the harness and disposed at the sides of and in front of the seat;and a pinch-lock mechanism articulatively secured to the front of saidstructure and adapted to receive and grip the safety rope, saidmechanism being operable under the control of an occupant of the seat totemporarily relax the grip on the rope and permit movement of the slingtherealong for accommodating changes in work position.

2. A workers sling in accordance with claim 1, wherein the pinch-lockmechanism includes a frame having an outer end, and a spool slidable inthe frame toward and from said outer end thereof, whereby the safetyrope may be wrapped around said outer end and partly around the spool.

3. A workers sling in accordance with claim 2, wherein the spool hasattached thereto a bail-type of latch, which normally hangs from thespool so as to be grasped and swung, backwardly and upwardly by theuser; and wherein there is provided a keeper for said latch adjacent theopposite end of the frame to lock the spool in ropereleasing position.

4. A workers sling in accordance with claim 1, wherein the rigidstructure comprises side rings to which the seat is attached, and a barextending horizontally across the front of the seat.

5. A workers sling in accordance with claim 4, wherein the seat isprovided by a pair of flexible web straps separately and slidablyattached at their opposite ends to the side rings, respectively, of therigid structure.

6. A workers sling in accordance with claim 4, wherein the bar isjournaled at the front of the rings so as to oscillate on itslongitudinal axis relative to such rings.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 138,051 4/1873 Shaw 182-7 296,7694/1884 Miller et al. 1827 2,252,998 8/1941 Watchel 182-6 2,432,74112/1947 Frankel 1826 2,561,832 7/1951 Wilson 182-7 2,691,478 10/1954Frankel 182--6 2,879,830 3/1959 Johnson 182---9 REINALDO P. MACHADO,Primary Examiner.

